The spectrum of modern and contemporary Artists' Books in Reed College's Special Collections and
collected on this website include traditional letterpress printed books of poetry, conceptual book
works, sculptural and visual works, concrete poetry, and magazine works. This unique collection,
which holds significant 20th century and contemporary artists’ books, gives students and the
broader population insight into the significant role artist's books have played among the avant-garde
of Eastern and Western Europe, Asia and the United States, from the turn of the last century to the
present. This includes livre d’artiste works by David Hockney,
avant-garde works by Sonia
Delaunay, conceptualist
works by Sol LeWitt, and contemporary works by Xu
Bing.

Professor Lloyd Reynolds, who taught calligraphy, letterpress printing, graphic design, and art
history during his tenure at Reed College from 1929 through 1969, was the first to foster interest
in the fine press book. He collected some of the college's most significant fine press books. This
effort has been furthered by subsquent art department faculty, who now teach courses in illuminated
manuscripts, iconoclasm, 20th century German art, and Chinese art history, and have purchased book
works to support their courses. The exhibition Bibliocosmos held
at Reed College Library's Douglas F. Cooley Memorial Art Gallery in 2004, featured several of these
works, as well as items from Reed's modern and contemporary Artists’ Books collection.

The modern and contemporary Artists’ Books collection began as a resource for the course “Image
Text, The Book as a Sculptural Object," which covers the history and fabrication of the
book as an alternative space for art documentation and exhibition. This website supports and highlights
the major historical categories taught in the course, which include the fine press,
the
avant-garde, the conceptualist and
1980 to present.
These categories, although generally used by most historians, are not clear divisions, and many books
are not limited to a single category. The website subsequently lists the majority of books in the
collection; a selection of our most significant bookworks have individual web pages where one can
navigate the entire work.

The history of modern and contemporary artists’ books does not run parallel with the functional
formality of the history of art. The movement is often dated by the emergence of several art book
presses at the turn of the 20th century, although examples of works and influence date back much
further. In the early 20th century, Ambroise Vollard, a Paris art dealer, created the livre d’artiste
book, or the deluxe edition book, when he produced books with well-known artists and authors. Simultaneously,
the artist book became a significant tool for artists to express social and political ideas and promote
revolution. The European avant-garde artists, such as Marinetti, not only deconstructed
language and typography, but also the book itself. The American and European conceptual artists of
the 1960’s,
such as Ed Ruscha, took this a step further, de-materializing the book as an art object by running
commercial printings with no signature.

Since its conception, the artist’s book has gone through many metamorphoses, allowing artists
to widen their presence to places and people outside of the gallery. Contemporary artists’ books
range from fine craft letterpress works to one-of-a-kind or limited-edition art objects, to political-based
zines and comics.

“The book is a unique medium in that it only performs its function if the viewer interacts
with it, and turns its pages. The artist’s book is above all a physical object with which we
interact with the physical world.”1 This
website makes available the physicality of the artist’s book to the broader community, allowing
users or viewers to experience the entire book before coming in to see the work in person.

Acknowledgements

The collection of Artists’ Books at Reed College was made possible by a generous gift to the
art department by John and Betty Gray and Sue and Ed Cooley.